Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Working from home during the day means I have the privilege of being able to look after a couple of my friends' kids after school, several afternoons a week.

I know when their birthdays are, and I usually pride myself on being organised well in advance when it comes to theirs (& everyone else's) birthdays!

But I slipped up this week!

One of my Tuesday/Wednesday girls' birthday was on Monday. I knew it was the 26th. I've had her card written and set out from the beginning of November. I always make her and her sister something for their birthdays.

Not realising how quickly November was disappearing like sand through my fingers, and foolishly thinking I still had plenty of time, I awoke Monday morning, checked the date, and then screamed!!

Ok, so that was a slight exaggeration! I gasped in shock with hand to forehead (i.e. slapping myself on the head for being so remiss) and then wracked my brains all day trying to come up with an idea.

I managed to start working on my idea on Monday night (in class!!!) and got it finished yesterday, wrapped up and in time for youngun' coming through that door at 3pm! Phew!

The smile and delighted reaction from this wanna-be fashion designer made it all worth while!

Sunday, 25 November 2012

The first week was all about playing with fimo (making buttons) and water soluble fabric.

And over the next few weeks we will be making a variety of brooches and flowers. Here is a sample of what they'll be having a go at!

We will be experimenting with satin stitch, free motion sketching, suffolk puffs (yo yo's) and how to make use of all those leftover scraps that usually find their way into the bin!

I hope you've all had a great weekend!

Some of my lovely Brit Bee and bloggy friends were meeting up at Susan's today! I'm so jealous I couldn't be with them again (just like we were in July)! You can see some really fun photos of the afternoon here.

As for me, I spent most of the weekend reorganising and sorting my sewing room to accommodate some new open shelving (thank goodness for Ikea!) with the help of my long suffering hubby! Thank you dearest!

This is the last month of this scrappy bee, hosted by Kat. It has been lovely getting to know some new folks from all around the world. Thank you ladies for your blocks and the opportunity to make some blocks I haven't tried before.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

A month or so back I 'aquired' an offcut of some lucious deep purple linen.

The label described the colour of this linen as Eggplant. The British vegetable equivalent is Aubergine!

Whatever your vegetable preference, one thing you must know: IT ISN'T BROWN!

I decided to put my holiday EPP project to good use. These diamonds were sewn from a wee pile of scraps, while travelling at 70mph along some motorway in England or Wales in July!

It was quite difficult photographing the true colour of this linen, which I doubled up as I didn't want the white wadding showing through.

I wanted to highlight the hexies created in the negative spaces around the stars, so I used an open satin stitch in variegated thread, which just happened to have the exact colours of this project in it!

This was an impromptu make, so I didn't have the right size zipper to make the back. Instead I covered 2 buttons in the linen, made a couple of button holes and voila!

This cushion finishes at 24" x 16" (Ikea filler) and is now sitting proudly on my BROWN sofa!

And before I go, Bee Blessed volunteers hit record numbers yesterday!

We were delighted to have 3 new members, swelling our numbers to 13 yesterday (the most we've ever had in one sitting!). From the youngest (age 11) to the oldest (never you mind!) we were a busy and productive hive!

Thank you to everyone who has already made the Great Big Kiss Block for us this month. It is so lovely seeing the blocks accumulating. The tutorial is here if you fancy having a go!

So I thought I'd have a go a trying to lengthen the skirt by adding a bit of something onto the bottom of it.

I dug out some old wool trousers I'd been keeping for recycling, cut up one of the legs and hey presto!

The trim you see there was a belt off one of the kids' old skirts or trousers which nicely hides the unseemly white line you get when you let down a hem!

I'm really pleased with how this skirt turned out.

And it goes perfectly with my new 99p Italian Leather shoes which I picked up in Barnardos at the weekend! Bargain!

And just before I go, the gorgeous Laura Jane is hosting a Low Volume Charm Swap, and we need a few more folks to sign up to get the numbers up to 56 people. I'm all signed up with my low volume fabric picked out.

Riley Blake, Daisy Cottage, Damask Grey

Low Volume refers to the 'quietness' of the print and colour, soft & muted as opposed to loud and bright. All you need is 1 yard of fabric cut up into 5" charm squares.

Sign ups are available on the flickr group here, where you can also see the other yummy fabrics that will be in the swap.

Monday, 12 November 2012

I'm pretty sure that every quilter has a particular technique, shape or pattern that they just don't connect with.

For me it's circles.

I greatly admire the stunning quilts patchworked in circles made by others, and I love to see new and imaginative ways to use circles in quilting.

But when it comes to actually sewing them, circles become my nemesis!

So you can imagine my gut reaction when my Brit Bee roomy Sarah posted her inspiration mosaic for her month in Brit Bee! YIKES!

Because I love my Brit Bee-ers so much (I think I would pretty much have a go at anything for them!) I smiled sweetly and said I'd have a go!

Yesterday was that day, and this is what I came up with, using the sumptuous reds and purples Sarah had sent me.

There is so much sheen off these fabrics that I've tried photographing them in lots of different locations (except outside, pouring with rain today) and this is the best I could get with my phone camera!

And for this block, I made my own Drunkard's path templates using this tutorial, and let Ms. Improv. take over!

Despire my curves being a tad wobbly in places I really love these blocks and thoroughly enjoyed making them! They were just the therapeutic distraction I needed this weekend from the stresses and strains going on at the moment.

Thank you Sarah for your creative genius and the faith you have in your fellow Brit Bee-ers not to make a complete horlicks of your blocks!

And this wise and sensitive friend also reminded me this weekend how important it is to take time to notice the beautiful things around us, in nature, in life, and not to let busyness make us short-sighted and miss the wonders that are all around.

So I'm going to try and take some pictures this week of things that I see around me, taking a few extra minutes to just look & ponder!

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I'm delighted you've visited my blog today, but can I please ask you not to reproduce any of my creations or photos without my permission. In most instances I'll be happy to oblige, but I'd be grateful if you would ask first. Thank you, Jxo